Category Archives: Skepticism

Grant and guest co-host Vance Crowe chat with JP Sears, creator of the hilarious and popular Ultra Spiritual YouTube and author of a new book How to be Ultra Spiritual: 12 1/2 Steps to Spiritual Superiority.

JP’s Bio (from his website):

“I’m an emotional healing coach, international teacher, world traveler, and curious student of life. My work is intended to empower people to empower themselves to live more meaningful lives.

I run a very busy one-on-one client practice (most sessions are via skype) where I’m fortunate enough to work with people everyday on healing their hearts, resolving self-sabotage, and stepping into their true power.

I also lead retreats around the world on different healing and personal empowerment themes for like minded and like hearted people to come together and learn, grow, and heal.

I also make videos. I’m very active on my YouTube channel, where I regularly release videos to help people help themselves. I also make comedy videos known as my ‘Ultra Spiritual’ series. Aside from the entertainment value of these humorous videos, they also carry important underlying messages (at least I think so, but I’m biased because they’re my videos).

And if the formal credential side of things is important to you, I hold certification as a Holistic Coach Advanced Practitioner through the Holistic Coaching Institute in Columbus, OH. I also served as a faculty member for the C.H.E.K. Institute from 2006-2013. Most importantly, I have red hair, blue eyes, a caring heart, and a warped sense of humor.”

Melbourne, Australia based magician and physician Dr. Vyom Sharma is in the Prism Studio for a fascinating discussion about the intersection of skepticism and magic. Dr. Sharma is a Family Medicine physician who has won numerous awards in the magic realm, including (with his troupe Gentlemen of Deceit) appearances on Australia’s Got Talent, the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and the Melbourne International Comedy Festival.

On this episode of The Prism, Clay and Grant sit down and have a chat with Myles Power.

Myles Power runs the educational YouTube channel powerm1985. He is originally from a small town in the North East of England called Middlesbrough, but has spent a large potion of his adult life living in Manchester. He is a chemist by trade who is is currently working in industry, but what little free time he has he spends sharing his love of science through home experiments, visiting sites of scientific interest, and angry rants at pseudoscience proponents. He has many years of experience working in a research lab, which has given him the skills he needs to research and debunk various psuedoscience theories. Some of the theories he has discussed on his YouTube channel includes AIDS denialists, 911 truthers, the anti-vaccination movement and homeopathy to name a few. He also is one of the founding members of the podcast The League of Nerds, which he co-hosts with James Gurney.

Vance Crowe sits down for a chat with Clay and Grant about Science Communication, dispelling myths about Monsanto, bridging the gap between skepticism and other areas in science and culture, and how to honor our tribalism while respectfully engaging communities unlike our own.

Vance Crowe is the Director of Millennial Engagement at Monsanto in Saint Louis, Missouri. Vance is a former Communications Strategist for the World Bank Group, a returned U.S. Peace Corps Volunteer stationed in Kenya, a former communications coordinator at a National Public Radio (NPR) affiliate in Northern California and was a deckhand on an eco-tourism ship that traveled in the Western Hemisphere. Vance holds an undergraduate degree in communications from Marquette University and a Master’s Degree in Cross-Cultural Negotiations from the Seton Hall School of Diplomacy.

Dr. Carol Tavris’s work as a writer, teacher, and lecturer has been devoted to educating the public about psychological science. Her book with Elliot Aronson, “Mistakes Were Made (But Not by ME): Why we justify foolish beliefs, bad decisions, and hurtful acts” (updated, revised edition, Mariner Books, 2015), applies cognitive dissonance theory to a wide variety of topics, including politics, conflicts of interest, memory (everyday and “recovered”), the criminal justice system, police interrogation, the daycare sex-abuse epidemic, family quarrels, international conflicts, and business.

She has spoken to students, psychologists, mediators, lawyers, judges, physicians, business executives, and general audiences on, among other topics, self-justification; science and pseudoscience in psychology; gender and sexuality; critical thinking; and anger. In the legal arena, Dr. Tavris has given many addresses and workshops to attorneys and judges on the difference between testimony based on good psychological science and that based on pseudoscience and subjective clinical opinion.

Dr. Tavris is a Charter Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science. Her honors and awards include the 2014 Media Achievement Award from SPSP; an honorary doctorate from Simmons college in 2013; the Distinguished Media Contribution Award from the American Association of Applied and Preventive Psychology (for The Mismeasure of Woman), the Heritage Publications Award from Division 35 of the American Psychological Association (for The Mismeasure of Woman), the “Movers and Shakers” Award from Southern California Library for Social Studies and Research, the Distinguished Contribution to Women’s Health Award from the APA Conference on Women’s Health, and an award from the Center for Inquiry, Independent Investigations Group, for contributions to skepticism and science.